The Droid Bionic

Motorola has long been ahead of the game in terms of Apple-beating android phones, and the Droids have been at the forefront of the charge. It was a Motorola Droid that first woke the world up to the possibility that smartphone life might not begin and end with the iphone. The earlier Droids were certainly something special, with blisteringly new, frequently updated Android technology, fast 3G and a ground breaking hook up with Google that provided users with functionality that had never been seen before.

While the rest of the android smartphone world has begun to catch up with Motorola, the range of Droid phones has been steadily improving. The new Droid Bionic is certainly a chip off the old block in terms of its ground breaking use of the newest and freshest technology, but Motorola no longer has quite the same position in the field of iphone rivals. With other manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung and Blackberry leaping ahead all the time, the Motorola Droid Bionic must fight hard to maintain a place at the forefront of the smartphone market. Let’s see how it performs when we look into it in a little more detail.

Externals:

When all is said and done, it is hard for phone designers to find a way to make their latest baby stand out from the crowd. Most smartphones cluster around the small, sleek tablet look in terms of their aesthetics, and here the Droid Bionic does little to deviate from the norm. However, while it won’t exactly stop the traffic, it certainly won’t be an embarrassment for its users either.

At 6.6cm by 12 cm, the Droid Bionic is big, but not awkward, with a pleasant enough plastic case and chrome controls for the volume and power. The phone is certainly thin enough at just over 1 cm at its thickest point, making it thin enough to look good but not so thin as to seem overly fragile. The rim of the phone is reasonably free from clutter, with just volume and power controls, a headphone jack, mini USB and micro HDMI ports; enough to provide a range of functionality without too much confusion. It’s nice to see an LED indicator light on the phone as well, so that you can see at a glance if you have a missed call, text or email that needs your attention.

The phone weighs in at 159 grams, making it slightly heavier than Motorola’s previous efforts. However, considering the amount of phone they have managed to squeeze in for that weight, it seems fair enough.

Display:

The screen is a decent 4.3 inches (10.9 cm). Made of tough Gorilla Glass, it is bright enough to be used even in direct sunlight and the resolution isn’t bad, either, with a high pixel count and good strong colours. The contoured edges of the screen are also quite pleasing to the eye, with a metal ring bordering the whole screen that picks it out nicely.

If this screen sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it is: it’s the same qHD display that Motorola served up with their Droid X2. It’s a shame they didn’t use this opportunity to crank up the screen on the Bionic to take this android phone to the next level however the Droid X2′s screen certainly wasn’t broke, so you can understand didn’t try and fix it. The screen and front of the Bionic is still pretty impressive as it is, especially since they got rid of the chunky buttons at the bottom that interfered with the looks of the X2.

Performance and internals:

For a smallish bit of kit, the Motorola Droid Bionic certainly packs a pretty punch running the Gingerbread OS. It comes with built in storage of 16 GB, half of which is yours to do with what you please. You can expand this with another 16 GB of micro SD card if required. Its 1 GHz processor is a step up from the X2 with a dual-core TI OMAP chip as opposed to the Tegra 2 chip many other manufacturers prefer. In terms of connectivity, the phone has LTE, CDMA, Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi at 802.11b/g/n. Calls come in loud and clear and the new processor can easily cope with the power of the LTE.

The Droid Bionic can also act as a WiFi hotspot for up to five other devices. On its own, websites load fast, downloads are speedy and it is quick to respond to your fingertip’s commands. Although the 1,700mAh cell is a bit of a beast, it still cannot keep up with the potential of this phone. If you want to use it for WiFi tethering for an extended period of time, it’ll basically have to be plugged in, and the battery life will keep you from exploring its full potential every day for fear of frustrating failures. This is a real shame, as Motorola just hasn’t been able to offer a battery big enough to cope with the grunt of this machine.

As far as storage is concerned the Droid Bionic has 16GB of internal storage and also comes with a 16GB micro SD card. For most this is going to provide all the necessary storage for their songs, music, and any files such as books that they may want.

Camera and user interface:

This phone boasts two cameras: a 2 megapixel one on the front, which is perfectly okay for video calling with the phone’s inbuilt Google Talk, and a far more impressive 8 megapixel camera on the back. This main camera is the same as with Motorola’s previous models, the X2 and the X, but it still works pretty well. The macro lens is especially impressive, whilst for general purposes the camera still tends to result in slightly washed-out, underexposed images. The quality of video recording has been markedly improved on this model.

The Android interface is fast, intuitive and allows for a good deal of customization. It comes pre-loaded with a good range of useful apps, with more readily available online.

Conclusion:

The Motorola Droid Bionic comes with enough accessory knick knacks to suit even the most hardened gadget addict. Its connectivity and internal wizardry offers real power and performance, with a flexibility that is refreshing. However, the battery life simply cannot live up to the demands that this powerful android smartphone puts upon it. If you are considering this phone you may want to wait until your current contract is up as it will run for $299 with a 2 year contract renewal. Without the renewal it is currently selling for $589.99. It certainly is a good successor to its predecessors but does not represent the giant leap forward that other android phones have been making recently such as the Galaxy SII and HTC Evo 3D.